With all the BMW talk of late, stands to reason that you start to notice more of them and pay more attention. There are a couple near me, and I saw another one into the car park today. I take back what I said about the 1 series hatch not being "that bad"...it really is that bad! The front end of the older model was kinda' OK, but the new one looks worse, and the back-end is one of the ugliest out there. Not trying to sway decisions like, it's just what I think of the car in terms of aesthetics. In contrast, with the Mk7 GTI there isn't one angle of the car I don't like the look of. Relative performance doesn't even factor into it for me!